Wonder Woman: Seance of Terror
"Seance of Terror" is the nineteenth episode of season two of the superhero action series The New Adventures of Wonder Woman and the thirty-second episode of the series overall. The series stars Lynda Carter in the dual role of Wonder Woman, aka Diana Prince, as well as Lyle Waggoner as Steve Trevor. It was directed by Alan Crosland with a teleplay written by Patrick Mathews. It first aired on CBS on Friday, March 10th, 1978 at 8:00 pm. Synopsis While Diana Prince is discussing security details of the next World Peace Conference with Cl. Dekker, a boy named Matthew is taking a picture of the Conference's Secretary Bakru and to his surprise his dead wife appears on it. The boy convinces Bakru to go along with him but when he gets into the car drops one of the photographs. The boy suggests Bakru he should meet his uncle who has the ability to talk to the spirits of dead people and that they can contact his wife. Diana, having been told by Decker that she is no longer needed, leaves to return to the IADC. As she comes outside she sees the car drive away and notices the photograph on the floor. She gets into her car and follows them. Two men who have been watching her get into their car and set off after her. The car pulls into a quarry, then turns around and speeds away. As Diana is about to turn around and follow it the other car pulls up and blocks her path. She is told to get out of the car, her wrists are tied and one of the men places her on a conveyor belt while the other searches her purse and discovers that she is Diana Prince of the IADC. Diana falls from the conveyor belt to the ground below, as she rolls down a pile of stones she spins into Wonder Woman. She leaps back to where her car is but the men have gone. At the IADC Diana tries to convince Steve that it is a psychic photograph that they have. • Steve Trevor: A psychic photograph? • Diana Prince: There's no other way to explain it Steve. The woman standing next to Bakru in that picture is his wife, she died a year ago in a fire. • Steve Trevor: Well this picture's a fake. Someone took a picture of an old photo of his wife and then re-exposed the film. • Diana Prince: No, the lab boys are positive it's not a double exposure. • Steve Trevor: Then some other technique was used to take it. • Diana Prince: No Steve, that picture was taken with a perfectly normal instant camera under perfectly normal conditions. • Steve Trevor: It's impossible because this is not a perfectly normal picture. • Diana Prince: Maybe it isn't, but it's not an impossibility either. Now faces of deceased loved ones have been showing up in photographs next to living people practically since photography itself has been invented, a hundred years or so. Granted such photographs are very, very rare but they do exist. • Steve Trevor: I still think it's a fake. We find out who's responsible for this and we just may be able to explain away over a hundred years of photographic history. • Diana Prince: Or we might find someone with incredible psychic powers. • Steve Trevor: What about fingerprints? • Diana Prince: Well, IRAC scanned both sides of the photograph but he won't have a readout till this afternoon, says he's booked solid till then. • Steve Trevor: Humans should be so popular! Oh by the way Diana, Colonel Decker says that Bakru's disappearance is your fault. • Diana Prince: What?! Oh, come on Steve, he dismissed me, said he had everything under control. • Steve Trevor: Well no matter what he says, I want you back at the embassy to keep an eye on Deputy Minister Kell and Ambassador Yamura. Those two, plus Bakru, are the key figures in these preliminary peace talks. • Diana Prince: What, you think they're all in danger? • Steve Trevor: I don't know what to think, this whole thing is very... strange. • Diana Prince: You almost said spooky didn't you? • Steve Trevor: Yeah I guess I did. Diana sets off for the embassy so that she can protect Kell and Yamura. When she arrives Diana is sent by Decker to Kell's room, unaware that it is a trap. Matthew takes a picture of delegate Kell and it appears his dead son Eric on it, he convinces her to leave with him too. Diana enters Kell's room and talks to the person sitting in the chair, then she notices something fall onto the floor so she reaches down to pick it up and as she does it emits a white gas. She sees that the person was in fact a dummy then collapses. Theodora enters, wearing a gas mask. Matt leads the delegate to the Psychic Research Institute where she is introduced to his aunt Theodora who tells her that the spirits need to talk to all three delegates about the peace conference and that they are awaiting the arrival of Yamura before any more is revealed. Due to Dekker accusations Diana is taken off the supervising mission. • Steve Trevor: Agent Marcowitz is on his way over to the embassy. • Colonel Decker: Which means you no longer need to worry about the peace talk negotiations. • Diana Prince: Steve, I'm perfectly capable of finding out who abducted those two diplomats. • Colonel Decker: On your last assignment you were found sleeping serenely on a backroom couch while supposedly watching deputy minister Kell who disappeared. • Diana Prince: Somebody lured me into that room and chloroformed me to get me out of the way and you know it! • Colonel Decker: No, no, no, there was no odor of gas in that room, there was only you. Whatever you were sleeping off it wasn't chloroform. • Diana Prince: Steve am I on this case or aren't I? • Steve Trevor: Diana, we've all been anxious for you to take a little leave time. I mean you've been really working hard. Why don't you fly to Florida, get a little sun, you can sail, scuba dive... • Diana Prince: Not until I find out how that picture was taken, who's got Bakru and Kell and who's trying to get me out of the way! • Steve Trevor: Okay, okay...you leave the name of the hotel where you'll be staying and we'll let you know the minute we find out. • Diana Prince: Steve you're not going to let him get away with this are you? If it wasn't for his lax security in the first place this never would've happened. • Steve Trevor: Diana, I'm sorry, it's out of my hands. Now go, have fun, get a good tan, read a couple of good books. • Diana Prince: Don't call us Diana, we'll call you. • Steve Trevor: The minute we have some good news. • Diana Prince: Well with him in charge I won't hold my breath! Matthew's uncle reproaches him because he lost of the pictures, and reminds him what is his function in the Institute. It seems that they have moved many times, never staying in one place for too long, traveling all over the world. Before leaving the IADC Diana tries to obtain some information from IRAC, though she is not authorized to do so. However IRAC gives her the information he has, saying as she leaves the room that Steve said he was not authorized to give information to Diana but had not banned him from giving it to Wonder Woman. Back in the Institute they are discussing details for the séance and they also plan to get rid of Diana Prince and decide to put a bomb in her car. Back in the Institute they are discussing details for the séance and they also plan to get rid of Diana Prince and decide to put a bomb in her car. That evening on the way to the Institute, Diana's car engine stops and a wall of fire appears on the road ahead making in impossible for her to go on. She gets out of her car hearing ghostly voices warning her of danger and telling her not to go on. Diana quickly spins into Wonder Woman and challenges them, mortal or otherwise to show themselves, they disappear. Disguised as a wealthy widow called Carol Littleton, Diana infiltrates the Institute and discovers they are using Matthew's psychic powers in dirty business. Back at the IADC Steve discusses the latest events with Eve. Yamura has now disappeared too. They know about Matthew Koslo and his uncle Lawson Koslo. He's been successful in using legitimate psychic phenomena to con people and he is now Matthew's legal guardian. Steve says he'll ring Diana with the news but Eve tells him that she tried to call earlier and there was no answer. When Ambassador Yamura arrives at the Institute, Diana watches him from her bedroom window, behind her door Matt takes a picture of Diana where she looks differently and she is forced to tell him that she is an IADC agent and that his uncle have been using him because he is such a special young man. It is difficult for Matt to believe that his aunt and uncle use his powers to make people believe what they tell them. She continues to tell him that his aunt and uncle are now arranging a séance for the three members of the peace conference so they can 'talk" to their beloved deceased. During the séance Bakru will talk to his wife, Ms. Kell to her son, and Yamura to his father. All three will be told to discontinue the peace conferences. His aunt and uncle will be paid a handsome price by an enemy country if the peace conference is called off and the border wars continue. When he leaves the room Diana looks at the two pictures he had taken, which have now developed, one shows her as Diana Prince, the other as Wonder Woman. She screws the photo up. Matthew's uncle sees him leave her room, he makes him tell him who Diana is and what she is doing there. He realizes that he'll have to get her out of the way. Diana leaves her room when she hears voices, almost a whisper, calling her name. She walks toward the voices and suddenly the floor opens up under her feet and she drops out of sight. She hits the floor, her head smacks against the wall, she is dazed, her vision clouds and her eyes close. A pipe in the wall starts to fill the room with white gas. A séance is in session and in the room are Theodora, Matt, Bakru, Kell and Yamura. There is total silence and suddenly a chorus of voices is heard as the deceased loved ones appear before them. Eric is telling his mother to cancel the conference as is Bakru's wife and Yamura's father. They insist the border wars must continue. In the meantime, Diana has regained consciousness and whirls into Wonder Woman. She leaps up through the open trap door and takes off down the hall. When she reaches the control room, she slowly opens the door and sees Koslo seated at the control console of a large machine, pushing buttons and turning dials mechanically creating the ghostly effects of the séance. Also on display are video tapes which are manipulated to effect the images in the séance room. Wonder Woman enters. She turns the knobs, pushes up switches and pulls out the control box and suddenly the ghosts disappear from the screens. She rips open the drapes and reveals a horrified Koslo to the people sitting at the table. He tries to escape but Wonder Woman grabs his leg and flings him up and onto his desk. When Theodora tries to escape Matthew uses his power to lock the door and Wonder Woman uses her lasso on Koslo to get information about why the peace conference was to be prevented from taking place. The three members of the conference return to the meeting and resume negotiations. Diana and Steve pulled a few strings and get Matt a grant to the International Science Foundation. And Steve, who wants to punish Diana for staying on an assignment she taken off, Diana told Steve that Colonel Decker lied to her but Steve tells her that Colonel Decker is now Private Decker so he insists that she takes a vacation and hands her a plane ticket, hotel reservations and official orders to have the time of her life. She tells him that she doesn't want to go, that she's not prepared but everything she says she doesn't have, suntan lotion, books and a film for her camera, Rover manages to produce. So she has no choice but to go. 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